How Do You Take Your Vacation?

[violagirl]

I am having this dilemma at work. When to take my vacation. I work in tax so I have portions of the year where having Sunday off is considered a vacation. But usually things die down around June 15th until mid August. Most people take most of their vacation at this time.

I have about 4-5 weeks vacation. Aside from taking one week to go to the cottage and a few days around the xmas holidays. I like to use the bulk of my vacation days to turn long weekends into 4 day weekends and then in the middle of summer to take Fridays off at work.

You would THINK it would be easier for people I work with knowing that I am in the office 4 days. That very important thing they request on Thursday will be done Monday. I dont' think it is too much to ask. 

What ends up happening is I say, well, ok, I'll check my email in the morning. Then well, ok I'll work a couple hours on your client so you can get it out for the deadline you promised. To well, I guess I'll take the afternoon off and then leads to no vacation. 

Other people take a week or two off at a time. Which is nice if you are going somewhere. But I don't really want to sit around my house for a week watching Netflix. I just want one day where I dont' have to go anywhere or bathe. Is that too much to ask?

I am also working on my masters so I was counting on the day off to get a little school work done. 

Why do I get the stink eye for taking one measly day off when everyone else has already had 1-2 weeks vacation this year? I've had 1 day since January!

Do you spread your vacation out or take it in large blocks?

[Peace Of Mind]

How do you take your vacations?

Neat, with a twist. 


DH takes his in various forms.  He gets 4 weeks a year vac. and 1 week personal time.  He takes about 1 1/2  weeks during Thanksgiving - paid holidays included so it comes out to be about 2 weeks.  Same with Christmas and New Year's.  The rest he attaches to weekends and weekends with a paid holiday.  It's like getting 8 vacations a year. 

[NastyWoman]

In big chunks: at least one 2-3 week vaction each year and a few days at Xmas.  And every few years two of the longer vacations. I'm lazy what can I say

[simser]

I'm a slight workaholic so I make sure to leave the country on vacation. On a long weekend I head down to Mexico (live in Arizona). Then I take a big chunk. I find if I'm in the country I'm checking email and answering questions. Out of the country I leave my work phone behind

[msventoux]

I usually don't take off big blocks at a time.  I've been thinking I should take a proper vacation, but it seems like a lot of work.    This time of year I'll usually try to take a Friday or a Monday off to get a long weekend.  I've also been only working half days quite a bit so I can leave around noon and take care of any errands I need to, get in some study time, have an early night, etc.

I've also come to realize that those of us who don't take blocks of time off and make a big deal about it in the office are the ones who are expected to always be available.  I'm getting much firmer about putting my time off on the calendar where everyone can see it and stating that I'm unavailable on those days when asked to help with something.  Generally other people know what deadlines they have coming up and I'm balking more and more at their procrastination turning into my problem.  We all know our clients and deadlines and can work around them.  I'm getting much crankier the older I get.

[Apple]

When I do a big trip, I take large chunks at a time (so once every two years or so).  Otherwise, I take just a day here and there.

One thought, could you schedule to take off a Monday instead of a Friday?  Most people don't set deadlines for themselves on Mondays, and there isn't that end-of-the-week rush for people to drag you into.  Just a thought.

[bean29]

I am guessing you are the problem, not your co-workers. I bet if someone suggests to a co-worker that something needs to be done, they indicate they notified the staff of their vacation plans and take their time off.

I told a co-worker I was going to be off today and she indicated she planned to be off today too. When I looked up the days I had coming I looked at hers too and knew she had about 10 days coming. There is no way she will use it, although if she announced she was taking the next 2 weeks off, we would deal. I told her to take the day off. I then had to ask co-workers for time cards a day early. A co-worker told me this really threw our hourly staff into a frenzy, but they all did it. I don't give them sh!t if they ask me for something and they treat me the same.

I am thinking you just need to be assertive in your rights. I thought about leaving days on the table, but I am way underpaid so I took 4 days this month. I will leave one on the table.

Try to take a few days every month, when you request a day, think about days you want off for long weekends. I create a long weekend for each family member's birthday. I take the day before Thanksgiving, christmas eve, Good Friday etc. When I asked for Good Friday I asked for a day in april for DD 's B-Day, May for DH's birthday and a Day for FIL's B-day.

When I request a day, I notify all my co-workers that might need something from me (all management, and all staff that reports to me/works with me).

I almost did not take a day in May but then realized my co-workers knew I would be off. So I took the day and was very glad I did.

[bean29]

Another thought on taking Mondays. When our kids were younger, we went to a water park in the Dells for their Birthdays. We usually went Sunday-tuesday or Sunday Monday b/c Sundays and days early in the week were cheaper and DH had an easier time with office coverage. So asking for Mondays might have other benefits too.

[ZaireinHD]

after 11 years I get close to 3 weeks off for vacation. the most days used is usually around my birthday
I loose maybe 3 to 4 days tops per year not using the time off. (use or loose policy per year)
rather use days during the week versus an extended weekend
Monday is important to be at work to get the week started
Friday is important to be at work to close out the week

[reader79]

I have four weeks plus three personal days. I try to take three individual weeks off - March, August, and right after Christmas. Then I use the last week and the personal days for Friday's off throughout the year.

I went to Hawaii last year in March to visit my sister, bummed around the house in August, and managed to get to St. Croix in October over a long weekend. This year, no vacation so far, but I'm going to Raleigh next month for a wedding. St. Croix again in October, and maybe Universal Studios after Christmas.

We're pretty good around here about not bothering people out of the office. I'll get maybe a few texts here or there. I'm going to be hiring a minion soon, so they'll be trained before I take my birthday week in August.

[Deleted]

You need to make up an excuse about why you won't be able to get your e-mail, or at least why you won't be able to sit down and work at your computer- heck, make up an all-day trip to a water park or a day when you're mostly on the road. Then have someone hide your computer from you if you must. If people know that you'll pick up work on your off-days, they'll take advantage of it.

I had 4 weeks of vacation at my last job. Typically DH and I would take a big vacation of 1-2 weeks in the spring or fall (when the weather was nice but we weren't in the height of the summer tourist season) and go to Myrtle Beach around Christmas. Other days I'd take off here and there to go to Des Moines to see DS and for a long weekend at our favorite B&B. I always checked e-mail but fortunately the work cultures I was in pretty much let people alone on their vacations. My feeling was that if I could spend half an hour at e-mails and maybe take care of some easy questions or direct something to someone who could address it, that was fine. I'd rarely get any more involved than that.

[wvugurl26]

I have taken a week off from time to time. A lot of the time I do a day or two for a long weekend. I'll take a day or two for my trip to Atlanta later this year. We can carry over 240 hours. I've never carried that much over.

I leave my laptop at work most of the time. Security protocols forbid accessing email from anything other than a work issued device. In my office only director level and above has a Blackberry. We try to be pretty good about leaving people alone while they are on vacation.

[giramomma]

We take of one big chunk (week and a half) and then I save the rest of my vacation time for when I need it for other things. This week, I'm taking vacation time from my day job to work one week job associated with my night job. Otherwise, the rest of the time I use for my kids (school things, spending time with them and avoiding summer childcare costs, etc)

I have 25ish PTO days, between vacation and personal leave. I do spend 3-5 days on myself every year.

I do offer to be available most of the time I'm on vacation. But, with my job, I pretty much come and go as I please in terms of being in the office. So I don't want to appear to be taking advantage of my workplace flexibility.

[Cookies Galore]

I got my third week of vacation this year plus the two personal days everyone gets. Hubs doesn't get as much time off as I do, so I typically take the week between Christmas and New Year's to myself. We were in Aruba in March and with my week at Christmas, I still have plenty of time off to take random long weekends.

I still end up carrying over a day or two. I won't know what to do with myself in two years when I get my fourth week of vacation! :-)

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

When I was working, I got 5 weeks of vacation.  I tried to piggyback it on Christmas (2 weeks) or Thanksgiving (10 days) and go somewhere.  The balance was usually a big trip somewhere.

[alabamagal]

When I worked for a large company, I got up to 6 weeks of vacation on year 20.  And you HAD to take them during the year no carryover unless blessed by the CEO.

At one point, the company was trying to look for ways to improve morale and employee retentian, so they were talking about allowing newer employees the option to buy vacation days if they wanted more than 2 weeks.  Basically unpaid time off.  I suggested they should also then allow us to SELL some vacation time back, because I really didn't need 6 weeks off.  I would have rather have 4 weeks + 2 more weeks pay.

As it worked out, by the time I got to 6 weeks vacation they announced the site I was at was closing in 2 years.  Those of us who stayed there (with a good retention bonus!) were allowed to be paid for unused vacation in the last 2 years, I think i got about 5 weeks pay that way.